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Briggs Cunningham, 96, Racecar Pioneer and Sailing Champ

Briggs Swift Cunningham II, a sportsman whose affinity for yachts and cars drew him to sailboat racing as an America's Cup skipper and to auto racing as the creator and driver of his custom sports car, died Wednesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 96.

Cunningham sailed in the 1958 Cup races off Newport, R.I., as skipper of the 12-meter sloop Columbia, successfully defending the America's Cup against the British challenger, the 12-meter yacht Sceptre.

''Briggs was like a fine violinist with boats,'' said Victor Romagna, who sailed with Cunningham in the competition. ''He would need someone to do the tuning, as one might with a Stradivarius, but afterwards, we would hand the boat back to Briggs. Then he would play the instrument absolutely perfectly.''

Cunningham was born Jan. 19, 1907, in Cincinnati. His family helped finance railways, telecommunications, meat-packing and commercial real estate, and his father was the chief financier of two young men who had developed a bath soap that floated. Their names were William Cooper Procter and James Norris Gamble.

Cunningham spent his summers in the Northeast and learned to sail by the time he was 6. His family moved to Southport, Conn., when he was a teenager. At age 17, Cunningham joined the Star Class racing fleet at the Pequot Yacht Club in Southport. The venture was the beginning of his 30 years of sailboat racing on Long Island Sound.

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Cunningham's interest in racecars began in 1939 when he participated in the New York World's Fair.

After World War II, he began competing in the 24-hour auto races at Le Mans, France, and in 1951 he showed up with the Cunningham C-4R, a racecar he had designed and built. Made with a sleek, hand-hammered aluminum body and Chrysler's newly introduced V-8 engine, the Cunningham has been called America's first sports car. A year later, Cunningham and his partner, Bill Spear, placed fourth with the car at Le Mans, averaging 88 miles an hour.

''Cunningham himself was never particularly interested in short races,'' Road and Track magazine said in 1979. ''What he liked to do was get out and drive and drive and drive, which was why Le Mans was so fascinating to him.''

Having raced his sports car for the last time in 1955, Cunningham began competing on a Jaguar team and became a Jaguar distributor in New England. After moving to California in 1962, he bought several vintage powerboats and, in 1964, opened the Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum in Costa Mesa, Calif., which has since changed ownership and was moved to a private museum in Florida.

In 1993, he was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, R.I. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Motor Sports Hall of Fame.

Cunningham was married 40 years to his second wife, the former Laura Cramer. He is survived by his wife; a son, Briggs Cunningham III of Danville, Ky.; two daughters, Lucie McKinney of Green Farms, Conn., and Cythlen Maddock of Palm Beach, Fla.; two stepsons, 19 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.